National Dialogue clarifies some points about pretrial detention and the draft criminal procedure law
The Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue followed with great care and attention the course of the recommendations it approved and submitted to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic, regarding the file of pretrial detention, which His Excellency referred to the House of Representatives through the government. The Council expresses its sincere thanks to the President for this referral and for the positive comments and specific directives conveyed by the official spokesman regarding these recommendations. The House of Representatives recently announced in a detailed statement that it had studied these recommendations, and a number of them had already been incorporated into the new draft Criminal Procedures Law, which was discussed by the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Council. In its statement, it referred to what it called “the most prominent of them.” In this context, the Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue finds itself required to clarify two important matters to public opinion: The first matter: What was stated regarding the file of pretrial detention generally represents a commendable response to what was stated in the recommendations of the National Dialogue regarding it, taking into consideration that pretrial detention and the topics branching off from it that the dialogue discussed represent one topic within the new draft law, which addresses dozens of other topics, and they occurred in 22 articles out of 540 articles, which is the total articles of The project.
In this context, the Board of Trustees valued what was stated in the House of Representatives’ statement, that “the Council is still open to discussing any amendments that some deem necessary to the new draft Criminal Procedures Law, as long as they aim to establish an effective justice system and seek to enhance public rights and freedoms, as the common goal remains achieving justice and ensuring the protection of everyone’s rights.”
In this context, the Board of Trustees discussed in its meeting today the articles included in the draft law related to the file of pretrial detention compared to the recommendations it concluded, and found that some of these recommendations were not included, in their philosophy and content, in the draft law, despite their necessity and importance for the comprehensive and required treatment of all the basic details of this file, which prompted the Board of Trustees to reformulate what it deemed necessary from recommendations that were not included or were not completed in the draft law, and it will raise them, according to the rules that have regulated the national dialogue since its inception, to Mr. President of the Republic so that he may take what he sees in them.
The second matter: Even if the national dialogue was not involved in any way in what happened From discussions on the draft Criminal Procedures Law, whether in the House of Representatives committees or in the public sphere, its Board of Trustees sees it as its duty to emphasize the following meanings:
Its keenness to fully appreciate and respect all constitutional institutions of the state, and in this regard the House of Representatives and the judiciary with all its departments and bodies, and all unions and bodies representing professional groups in Egypt, and in this case the Journalists’ and Lawyers’ Syndicates and the Judges’ Club, and it affirms its full confidence in the good management of all these institutions, unions and bodies, for any differences between them regarding the proposed draft law, within the framework of the deep appreciation and respect between them, and the integration between the specializations and roles assigned to each of them by the constitution and the law.
The Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue called on all these institutions, unions and bodies, with their influential status and weight in the affairs of the country, to hasten to bring their viewpoints closer together, in a way that places relations between them – whether in disagreement or agreement – on their natural course of mutual respect and integration in roles in order to achieve the supreme interests of Egypt. And the Egyptians.
The Board of Trustees expects and hopes that all these institutions, unions and bodies will take the initiative, as soon as possible, to hold meetings or meetings among themselves, to present and discuss the various points of view related to some articles of the draft law, with the aim of reaching consensus that achieves the common general objectives to realize the hopes and aspirations of the Egyptian people for prompt justice, in terms of content and procedures.
Let us remember together here what President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said in his call for national dialogue on April 26, 2022: "Differences of opinion do not spoil the cause of the homeland."
